Note 807 — PART IX.—INORGANIC POISONS. (continued 2)

Antimony occasionally finds its way into articles of food through obscure channels. Dr. Page has recorded the fact of antimonial lozenges having been sold openly by an itinerant vendor of confectionery. Each lozenge contained nearly a quarter of a grain (·16 mgrms.), and they caused well-marked symptoms of poisoning in the case of a servant and two children. How the antimony got in was unknown. In this case it appears to have existed not as tartar emetic, but as an insoluble oxide, for it would not dialyse in aqueous solution.—“On a remarkable instance of Poisoning by means of Lozenges containing Antimony,” by David Page, M.D., Medical Officer of Health, Lancet, vol. i., 1879, p. 699.